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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24280603">Hisan'na Hana</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/TeamAlphaQ/pseuds/TeamAlphaQ'>TeamAlphaQ</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Durarara!!</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Angst, Eventual Smut, Hanahaki Disease, Hate to Love, Hurt No Comfort, I Can't Promise a Happy Ending, Language of Flowers, M/M, We are doing this boys</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-05-20</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-06-10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-03 01:14:24</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Explicit</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>16,811</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24280603</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/TeamAlphaQ/pseuds/TeamAlphaQ</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Love.</p><p>It sounds like nonsense, especially to Izaya. That is, until he starts coughing up bloody flowers. Shinra insists it'll kill him, Izaya insists that he doesn't have time for something like this.</p><p>Especially because if he <em>were</em> to tell Shizuo, the beast would kill him far quicker than any fairytale disease ever could.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Heiwajima Shizuo/Orihara Izaya, Kishitani Shinra/Celty Sturluson</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>72</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>123</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Yellow Hyacinth</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>I've been itching to write Shizaya for a hot minute, so when this particular idea occurred to me, I figured I'd take it and run with it. There's been a definite lack of angst in my life recently so <em>of course</em> the solution is to write one of the angstiest AUs known to fandom.</p><p>By starting this story, I am finally completing the unholy trinity of AUs. I have Omegaverse, I have Soulmates, now I have Hanahaki Disease. I am trash, you can dispose of me when you're done.</p><p>God I am so ready.</p><p>Enjoy.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Izaya’s fingers beat an irregular pattern in the leather of his desk chair. “Your daughter, you say, Onishi-san?”</p><p>“Yes.” Takumi Onishi’s voice was solid, but desperation still managed to creep in around the edges. “Please, I can pay.”</p><p>“Oh, I never doubted you <em> could,” </em> Izaya purred. Turning his head minutely, the Raven examined the man sitting before him. From his perfectly slicked hair, to his expensive suit, to the way his hands kept wringing the arms of his chair. “But you must understand, I am not <em> the police. </em> I do not look for…” He waved an absent hand. “Missing persons.”</p><p>Onishi lurched forward in his chair visibly at the words. “I’ve already gone to the police, they couldn’t do anything. I need someone who can-”</p><p>“What you need,” Izaya hummed, drumming fingers moving to the slick oak wood of his desk. “Is a Private Investigator. Ne, you don’t think I look like one of <em> them, </em> do you Onishi-san?”</p><p>“N-no.” There was a slight tremor in the man’s voice.</p><p>“I didn’t think so.” Lazily, Izaya pushed away from his desk, spinning his chair to face the window as he did. It was only then that the smile on his face fell into an irked frown. This whole conversation was straying dangerously close to a waste of time. And while sometimes he welcomed the distractions his humans brought before him, today was not one of those days.</p><p>“You don’t have to bring her back, I just… I want to know where she is and if she’s safe.” Onishi had given up on any pretense of composure. His voice had cracked, and there was fear in his words. Listening to him beg, desperate for someone to help him was unquestionably amusing, but- <em> I remain unconvinced. </em></p><p>If he spent much longer simply chatting, Namie would have words for him. Izaya wasn’t particularly keen on listening to her nagging.</p><p>“Onishi-san, I must say, it sounds to me like your daughter wasn’t taken at all, though I think you already knew that.”</p><p>“I-”</p><p>Spinning his chair once more till he faced the man, the Raven pulled a malicious smirk onto his lips. “It sounds to <em> me </em> like your daughter chose to leave, likely due to your… Excesses.” Recalling easily his last dealings with this man, Izaya lifted an eyebrow. “I can only assume the drinking has gotten worse.”</p><p>Takumi Onishi swallowed heavily, drawing back into his seat as he did so.</p><p>“Ah, but that’s none of <em> my </em> business,” Izaya trilled delightedly. Drawing a finger through the air, as if painting a picture, he continued, “No doubt she ran off with a boy, someone you didn’t approve of, and now she won’t answer your calls. Which is why you’ve come here. You want <em> me </em> to go snooping around your daughter’s life and <em> theoretically </em> guilt trip her into returning because you can’t seem to let her go.”</p><p>When the man continued to stare at Izaya with the same frozen, shocked look, the Raven lowered his lids maliciously and asked, “Am I wrong?”</p><p>“Fan Cao,” Onishi breathed, his eyes wide, scared, but not entirely cowed. “That’s his name. And I know he’s bad news.”</p><p>Carmine eyes glittered behind long lashes. “How?”</p><p>“He- He’s dealing drugs.”</p><p>Izaya scoffed. “Oh, how very terrible.”</p><p>The man shook his head before insisting, <em> “Chinese </em> drugs. And I-” He wet his lips nervously. “It’s not a small operation. I don’t know much about it, but it’s bad.”</p><p><em> Ah, now you see, </em> that’s <em> interesting. </em></p><p>Though his tone was disinterested, Izaya’s demeanor had changed. “What’s your daughter’s name again, Onishi-san?” </p><p>Relief came off of Onishi in waves. “Hanako.”</p><p>Steepling his fingers, Izaya hummed in his throat as he filed the information away. “Well, I cannot promise I will… <em> Return </em> your daughter to you.” When the man opened his mouth to interject, the Raven lifted a pinky finger to silence him. “ <em> But- </em> I will confirm she is alive. After all-” His lips lifted into a smirk. “You’ve given me such an interesting lead.”</p><p>“Thank you, Orihara-san,” Onishi breathed. “You have no idea how much this means to me.”</p><p><em> Oh, I have some idea… </em> Expression gentling into a false smile, Izaya musically said, “Ah, it is my <em> pleasure, </em> Onishi-san. I’m sure this arrangement will be nothing but mutually beneficial.” Mutual might have been a rather loose term for it, but he supposed it theoretically applied. “Now shoo~ I have work to do. My secretary will contact you in regards to payment.”</p><p>Then he spun his chair once more and faced the window, letting Takumi Onishi see himself out, mind already picking away at this new situation. <em> And here I worried this week would be boring. How lucky for me. </em></p><p>Clicking heels brought him out of his reverie.</p><p>“I’m surprised you didn’t throw him out.”</p><p>At the sound of that familiar, clipped voice, Izaya chuckled lightly under his breath. “And <em> I’m </em> surprised you didn’t butt in, Namie-san. After all, he was a former partner of yours, and you do love to make my life difficult.”</p><p>“We had occasional dealings,” Namie, Izaya’s grudging secretary, grumbled. “He’s a business associate <em> at best.” </em> There was a disgruntled shuffling of papers. “But don’t change the subject. You <em> never </em> bother with things as small as missing persons’ cases, no matter who the person is.”</p><p>“Ah, but she’s hardly missing, is she Namie-san?” Eyes flitting over the Shinjuku skyline, which lay tightly amassed before him, Izaya hummed, “After all, if she was missing, our dear friend Onishi-san would have contacted the police. Yet he says he <em> can’t get them involved. </em> Clearly, he knows enough of the circumstances to know she is alive; not so much missing as… Absent.”</p><p>Running ivory fingers over the dark leather of his wonderful spinny chair, Izaya finished, “Which is why he has come to me. Because he has a name, and he knows the probable cause well enough to know he doesn’t want authorities involved.”</p><p>“That still doesn’t explain why you’re actually getting involved,” Namie pushed stubbornly. “And before you say something about the drug trading, I don’t believe that’s your only reason. There are always Chinese drugs in the system, they border Japan, there’s not much we can do about it. You’ve never cared before.”</p><p>Slowly, Izaya creaked his chair back around just enough so that he could see Namie from the corner of his eye. The dark-haired woman was studying him critically, her eyes narrowed and her mouth drawn into a thin line. “Have I ever told you that you’d look much prettier if you smiled more, Namie-san?”</p><p>“Yes. And I believe my answer then is the same as it is now,” the woman quipped back, expression unchanging.</p><p>A smirk spread over Izaya’s face.</p><p>“If I recall, you told me to, and I quote-”</p><p>“Fuck off? Good job, you remembered.” Flicking several long strands of black hair over her shoulder, Namie began once again flipping through the paperwork scattered over Izaya’s dining table. “So what is it about this girl that makes her more interesting than all the other people you’ve been begged to locate?”</p><p>“Oh, absolutely nothing,” Izaya chirped, eyes lighting up delightedly. “Don’t say stupid things, Namie-san. It’s not a good look on you.”</p><p>Frustration manifesting in a severe twitch of her eyebrow, Namie said, “Well then, what is it?”</p><p>Getting to his feet, Izaya made a show of stretching, extending the various muscles of his arms and legs before languidly pulling himself back into a relaxed stance. “Why, it’s an excuse of course~”</p><p>Unexpectedly, Namie snorted loudly. “Figures.”</p><p>Smiling, the Raven delicately picked his way around his desk, lazily striding over his hardwood floor. “I’ve been <em> curious </em> as to the rumors of a new gang appearing around Tokyo, and Shiki-san has made it clear he’ll part with a decent amount of money if I can bring him <em> useful </em> information on the subject.” Waving a hand, the man continued, “Why not kill two birds with one stone?”</p><p>Hardly seeming convinced, Namie let out a, <em> “Hmm,” </em> before going back to her papers.</p><p>Putting on an exaggerated face of shock, Izaya asked, “You suspect me of having an ulterior motive? How very <em> jaded </em> of you Namie-san.”</p><p>“Don’t give me that,” Namie muttered. “You <em> always </em> have an ulterior motive.” Pulling out several stapled documents, the taciturn woman began to leaf through them. “I know you Izaya, you <em> never </em> just <em> do </em> things for logical reasons.”</p><p>“Mmm, do I now?” Settling into the chair across the table from his secretary, Izaya leaned closer before resting his chin on his folded hands. “And what do you suspect that malicious purpose of mine is this time?”</p><p>“Something horrible, I’m sure.” Glancing up, Namie fixed Izaya with a piercing stare, one that earned her a serene smile. “Do you want me to schedule a meeting with Shiki-san?”</p><p>“Not yet. Better to have something concrete first, ne?” Leaning back in his chair, Izaya laced his fingers behind his head absently and let his eyes slide closed. “It’s a nice day out, don’t you think Namie-san? Perhaps I should go out. It has been a while since I’ve gotten fresh air.” If he didn’t dawdle, he could be in the Toshima district before the afternoon took hold. There might even be time for some fun before he began asking around in earnest…</p><p>“Just focus on work, if that’s what you’re actually planning on going out to do,” Namie muttered, already exasperated.</p><p>“Ne, Namie-san, what else would I focus on if not my work?” Izaya asked, his lips twitching slightly.</p><p>He was treated to a <em> look, </em> one that said more clearly than words could, <em> I’m not stupid, and neither are you. </em></p><p>“I’m trying to make things simple for once,” the woman stated, dark eyes flicking back up to his face. “Before you wander around Ikebukuro for the next few hours, don’t bother. <em> That man </em> took the day off.”</p><p>Momentarily surprised, Izaya covered the emotion with ease. There was no question of who <em> that man </em> was, there was only one. Or rather, he was the only one that Izaya might have gone looking for. “Namie-san, don’t tell me you’re <em> interested-” </em></p><p>“Hardly,” she snapped, impatience wearing thin lines between her brows. “You’re the one who’s unhealthily obsessed. I just know that if I can’t find you, you’re probably wherever Heiwajima-san is.”</p><p>The way she said it, almost like it implied something where there was nothing, it left an uncomfortable taste in Izaya’s mouth. These days, it always did. Unconsciously, he tensed, waiting for the weird tightening in his chest that he’d been growing accustomed to whenever anything to do with Shizuo came up, but for once, it didn’t come.</p><p>Relieved, despite himself, Izaya dismissed Namie’s accusations with an airy wave of his hand. “Oh, don’t be ridiculous Namie-san, I’m hardly-”</p><p>“Save it. I’m really <em> not </em> interested in whatever <em> weird </em> justifications you have.” Snapping his mouth shut, Izaya drew back slightly, irked by his secretary’s dismissive attitude. “I’m just letting you know, if you go looking for him, he’s not going to be walking his usual route.” </p><p>“Well then,” Izaya returned, ruffling metaphorical feathers at the insinuation that he held anything for Shizuo other than professional fascination and a strange medley of emotions he liked to classify as hate. “I suppose I should tell you that I do not go <em> looking for </em> Shizu-chan, instead, he’s the one who stumbles into my business like the graceless beast that he is.”</p><p>“Whatever.” Somehow, her unimpressed dismissal was much worse than outright antagonism would have been. “Just don’t go bothering him. There are other things you can be doing.”</p><p>Abruptly filled with the need to move, Izaya shot to his feet. “Never you fear Namie-san, I will <em> enjoy </em> my Monster free evening. You have no need to worry about me going to find him.”</p><p>“I’ll believe it when I see it.”</p><p>Biting the inside of his lip, quelling the instant reaction Namie’s words threatened to spark, Izaya pulled a placid expression over his face to cover up his own irritation. “I assure you, your concern is unnecessary. I’d advise you to put your energy into your job, rather than worrying after your employer.”</p><p>Namie <em> tched </em> under her breath. “The only thing I’m worried about is that city, considering how often you two tear it to pieces.”</p><p>“All in a day’s work,” Izaya hummed.</p><p>“I’m the one who has to deal with the paperwork asshole!”</p><p>“And for me,” Izaya purred. “I’m sure you do it <em> gladly.” </em></p><p>Namie’s only response was to huff.</p><p>As the equilibrium in the room settled once more, the Raven skipped over to his front door and grabbed for his coat, decidedly deeming the conversation <em> over. </em></p><p>He could dock Naime’s pay later…</p><p>
  <b>Yellow Hyacinth</b>
</p><p> </p><p>As warm afternoon air blew over the sunny rooftops of Ikebukuro, Izaya tilted his head up to the sky and breathed in as deeply as his lungs would allow.</p><p>Everything below him was bustling. Pedestrians, peddlers, and traffic all blended together as the world rushed past, ever marching forward. The ebb and flow of it was obvious from this height, swelling and dwindling like a river bubbling down a mountain crag. If he took a moment to stand still, he could pick people out from the crowd and easily guess what they were doing.</p><p>A woman was rushing to catch a cab. The man on the corner was begging for cash. Another suited gentleman was arguing with a store keep in front of their establishment. All of it blurred in the Raven’s gaze, and he pulled away from the edge of the roof.</p><p>His mind was still turning.</p><p>If Izaya was being honest, this wasn’t the first time he’d had that conversation with Namie, and he would have been lying if he said she was the only one who’d called him on it. It had been coming from <em> everyone </em> lately, that slightly exasperated expression, and a dismissive, <em> Stop being so obsessed. </em></p><p>Shinra kept calling it rediculous. Celty had made it clear that if it had to do with Shizuo, she wasn’t interested. Even some of Izaya’s more passing acquaintances had said something. It was like something had changed, and everyone was aware of it but the Raven.</p><p><em> Nothing has changed, Shizuo and I are the same as we’ve always been. </em> They still tore through the streets of Ikebukuro, locked in vicious battle several times a week. Izaya still strived to make Shizuo’s life difficult, and the blond never wasted an opportunity to try and kill him. It was your typical rivalry, and <em> really </em> considering how long they’d been at it, you’d think that everyone would be used to it!</p><p>But maybe that was it. They’d been at this game for years now, long enough that even Izaya had lost track. Maybe this was everyone’s frustration bubbling up and manifesting. The sincere wish that they’d <em> cut it out already </em> or somehow make nice and get over their feud.</p><p>Musing over it felt like a waste of time, but Izaya liked to indulge himself.</p><p>Finding a good place to drop down off the rooftops of Ikebukuro, the Raven twitched the hood of his coat up over his face and melded with foot traffic. There was nothing better than mingling with his humans, watching them as they went about their day to day lives, blissfully ignorant of the world around them.</p><p>Sometimes,  he wondered what it would be like to be one of them. Concerned with mundane things, nothing more exciting than a nine to five job to take up his time. It sounded dull, Izaya would have been horribly <em> bored. </em> Then again a place like this city, which offered so much excitement if you only went looking for it, a normal life was almost impossible.</p><p>Depending on who you were, that impossibility could be a blessing or a curse.</p><p>As he slipped through the herds of people walking down the sidewalk, past a gaggle of teenage girls and around the two men locked in a heated debate, Izaya’s mind inevitably wandered back to Shizuo. It often did at times like this. Wandering through Ikebukuro tended to bring him to the forefront of Izaya’s brain, after all.</p><p>Shizuo was one of those people for whom a normal life was impossible. Though Izaya liked to take credit for a good portion of this, he knew it was just as much thanks to the beast himself. With a short temper and impossible strength, Shizuo was always just a few words away from snapping. Between the city itself, and Izaya’s needling, the blond wouldn’t have been able to be boring even if he tried.</p><p>Recalling their most recent fight, if you could even call their disastrous dances through the streets of Ikebukuro <em> fights, </em> Izaya let a satisfied smirk crawl over his face. Shizuo had been especially touchy that day, and had ended up chasing the slippery informant clear across the city. The bill for it had been staggering. An entire overpass was currently cordoned off until public services managed to repair the chuck Shizuo had taken out of it.</p><p>Images of wild blond hair and glowing golden eyes wandered across Izaya’s mind, and the Raven found a warm satisfaction growing in his stomach. Perhaps they were violent, destructive, and above all <em> dangerous, </em> but Izaya hardly considered what he and Shizuo did <em> fighting. </em> No, it was something else. Something much more sacred.</p><p>Not that he would ever say it out loud. Namie would have laughed at him, and Shinra would never let him hear the end of it.</p><p>If he were to tell Shizuo, well… Izaya suspected his entrails would be splattered over the nearest hard concrete surface.</p><p>But privately, he could admit that maybe Namie had a point. He did enjoy Shizuo’s presence a little too much, especially considering how he claimed to hate the blond. If he’d been serious in his hatred, maybe he would have acted differently, but when had his thoughts and emotions ever conformed to the usual way of things? </p><p>Besides, what he had now? He wouldn’t trade it for the world.</p><p>It was a shame, really, that Shizuo had taken today off. Izaya could have used a good game of cat and mouse. His limbs were itching, and the strange chest congestion he’d been suffering from for the past few weeks had cleared up. A proper chase would help loosen him up, put him in the right frame of mind for the slowly forming plan that was brewing in the back of his head.</p><p>Alas, it was not to be. Izaya allowed himself a dramatic pout for a second before pulling his usual smirk back onto his face.</p><p><em> I really should find out where Namie is getting Shizuo’s schedule from. If it’s easier than my own methods, I might have to use it… </em> Of course, he probably wouldn’t outright ask the woman, no, she’d be insufferable if he did. But there was always snooping when she was otherwise occupied.</p><p>Letting his thoughts wander for another few minutes, Izaya finally had the presence of mind to begin thinking over his current task in earnest.</p><p>Namie had made a good point when she’d said that Izaya usually didn’t take on <em> missing person </em> cases. Technically, you could call people’s locations <em> information, </em> but it was a weak justification, and really, the life of an investigator didn’t interest Izaya, no matter how much money he was offered. People came to him for <em> information, </em>not for information.</p><p>It was a delicate balance.</p><p>Some things were just <em> beneath </em> him.</p><p>But this was something different. Recently, according to Shiki and backed up by some of Izaya’s own sources, there had been a spike in the drug trade flowing through Tokyo. Though it was hardly the Yakuza’s main business, generally <em> most </em> organized trading of illegal substances went through them. It was lucrative, after all, and it wouldn’t do to just let <em> someone else </em> control that sort of thing.</p><p>Which is why, after sliding a folder across the table to Izaya, Haruya Shiki had asked, in his usual, husky voice, to kindly <em> Look into things, I’m sure you know what I’m talking about, Orihara-san. </em> And of course, Izaya <em> did </em> know, and he’d been just <em> waiting </em> for a proper excuse to dig his fingers into this particular nest of vipers.</p><p>But he’d needed something to spring off of, because if his instincts were correct, then this went a lot deeper than it at first appeared to.</p><p>Cue Takumi Onishi, and his only daughter, Hanako.</p><p>It was almost too perfect, finding out that a completely unassuming person was connected to the outside of what was promising to be a very large web. Hanako, reasons for running away from her father aside, had apparently decided to run to Fan Cao, who in turn was part of the fringes of this drug trade. Naturally, Izaya had <em> other ways </em> to dig into the mess, but this one seemed so <em> perfect, </em> how could he pass it up?</p><p>The answer was, he wasn’t going to. He was going to follow this thread as far as it went, and when he came to the end of it, he was going to pick up another and keep going. It had been a while since he’d gotten into something big, and just like his body itched for the thrill that Shizuo’s roar could bring, his mind itched for a challenging problem that couldn’t be solved in a day.</p><p>Doubtless, he’d get way in over his head, and disaster would follow, but where would the fun be if he wasn’t a <em> little </em> careless. Within reason of course. Izaya would be fine, all the other humans involved, well, that was up for debate. It depended on how gracious he was feeling when the time came.</p><p>The sun continued to dip down lower in the sky.</p><p>As it gleamed over the scene before him, the light caught on a reflective surface and temporarily blinded the Raven. Squinting in momentary irritation, Izaya’s peaceful mood gave way to delight as a familiar head of blond hair and blue sunglasses eclipsed his vision.</p><p>
  <em> And I didn’t even have to go looking for him. </em>
</p><p>Shizuo was headed Izaya’s way, completely oblivious as to who was before him. He’d traded his usual bartender-esque uniform for a casual shirt and jeans, and an absent cigarette hung from between his lips, but other than that, it was the same Monster Izaya knew and adored.</p><p>Just seeing him left Izaya a little breathless, as if in anticipation for what was to come.</p><p>Slipping his hands into his pockets, Izaya danced closer.</p><p>“Ah, Shizu-chan! What a coincidence, coming across you here~”</p><p>The change in the man’s demeanor was instant. Peaceful expression vanishing, Shizuo’s eyes narrowed behind his sunglasses, and his muscles tensed, already preparing for a fight. Like a wild dog, he swung his head around, searching for the source of the voice, before honing in on Izaya’s presence and sticking there. “I-za-ya,” Shziuo growled, stance already lowering, ready to leap into action. “What the hell are you doing in my city?”</p><p>“Oh, simply seeing the sights~ Enjoying the <em> people.” </em> One hand left his pockets, with it came a sleek, black switchblade. “The weather is simply delightful today, after all.” Grinning as the people around them began to clear out, like they knew what was coming and wanted to be nowhere near it when it exploded, the Raven crooned, “But enough about me, <em> Shizu-chan, </em> what are you doing? Shouldn’t you be working?”</p><p>“Shouldn’t you be making people’s lives miserable, <em> Izaya?” </em> Oh, he was so close to breaking, it only ever took a few words from Izaya’s lips before he snapped. Shizuo was so predictable, it would have been laughable if Izaya didn’t enjoy it so <em> much. </em></p><p>“But I’m here! Spending time with my precious Monster.” Flicking the blade of his knife out, Izaya spared a thought for the comfortable pressure of it in his palm. “I wouldn’t want you to feel lonely after all~”</p><p>Sharply opening his mouth to retort, cigarette falling from his lips as he did so, Shizuo began to lurch forward, only to stop suddenly. And it’s at that moment that Izaya’s world shifted permanently, though even <em> he </em> couldn’t have known it at the time.</p><p>Because before his beast could lunge at him, a delicate, pale hand lighted upon Shizuo’s shoulder, and Vorona stepped out from behind him. Which was strange because Izaya had only ever seen them around each other when they were working, and according to Namie and all available evidence, Shizuo wasn’t working today.</p><p>For a moment, time seemed to stop as Izaya’s brain registered too many things at once. Vorona’s casual clothing, that mirrored Shizuo’s own. The close proximity between the two of them, which the Raven had never really <em> noticed </em> until that moment. And of course, the instant settling of his Monster, who went from <em> primed to fight </em> to <em> calming down </em> faster than Izaya could keep up with.</p><p>Something within Izaya’s chest tightened, to the point of being painful, and time jumped back into motion.</p><p>“Is not worth it, Shizuo-senpai,” the blond woman stated, cool gray eyes boring into Izaya in a way that physically forced him to take a step back. “The dreadful man is purposeful in upsetting you.”</p><p>The smile on Izaya’s face widened manically. “Ah, I didn’t realize I was <em> interrupting </em> something, Shizu-chan~ And to think, I believed you were nothing more than a sad, lonely <em> beast.” </em></p><p>“Fuck off Izaya,” Shizuo growled, though his stance settled. He still looked angry, Izaya imagined he <em> could </em> set the man off if he wanted to, but suddenly, he found the desire had vanished. Whisked away by the afternoon light as though it had been nothing but a passing fancy. “I’m not interested in dealing with your bullshit today.”</p><p>“Ne, you only had to ask,” Izaya said with a laugh, dancing around Shizuo and Vorona, blade still drawn, but hanging limply from his fingers, entirely forgotten. “Though I must know, is it difficult pretending to be a human being? I can’t imagine a protozoan like you has enough brain power to manage it for more than a short period of time.”</p><p>He wasn’t sure why he was still talking, especially when he’d subconsciously made the decision to leave at least a minute ago. All he knew was that if he <em> didn’t </em> keep needling Shizuo, he’d have to face the tight, twisting feeling in his gut that was making it hard to breathe.</p><p>“Oi-!” Shizuo began, but Vorona cut him off, smoothly stepping in front of him without a second thought.</p><p>“If it is your wish to trouble Shizuo-senpai, I will be forced to stop you.” Tipping her head up, gaze still frustratingly level and cool, Vorona continued, “Enjoying the evening will prove difficult if you continue this ceaseless bothering.”</p><p>Giving the Russian woman a once over, Izaya sneared, “My my Shizu-chan, I didn’t realize a beast such as yourself needed to hide behind decent humans.” He was already backing up though, the knife vanishing from his hand as carmine eyes flickered from Vorona, to Shizuo, then back again. “You’ve grown weak, how disappointing.”</p><p>“I haven’t-!”</p><p>“Don’t, is only meaningless words.” That hand settled back on Shizuo’s shoulder, and Izaya flinched, though at this point, he was too far away from the pair of them for it to be noticed.</p><p>Eyes narrowing, Shizuo’s fingers clenched into a fist for a second, before he forced himself to relax. “You’re lucky Flea, I’ll kill you some other time.”</p><p>It was the most peaceful conversation they’d ever had. Izaya <em> hated </em>it.</p><p>So he simply called, “In your wildest dreams, Shizu-chan~” before melding back into the nervous crowd that were loosely surrounding their argument. It was there he paused and <em> watched. </em> Watched as Vorona’s fingers trailed down Shizuo’s arm, before she leaned in close to murmur something in his ear. </p><p>Watched, as his previously untameable monster relaxed his tense shoulders and nodded, before docilely following the Russian woman down the street and through the door of a Ramen shop. Like they were a normal couple out on a date.</p><p>It occurred to Izaya in that moment that they probably <em> were </em> together, in some respect. In all his years of chasing and being chased by Shizuo, he’d never imagined the Beast could really <em> have </em> normal relationships, much less friendships. He was too wild, too unpredictable, to <em> volatile. </em>Shizuo didn’t fix things, he broke things. He smashed and tore and wreaked havoc, whether he meant to or not.</p><p>He didn’t <em> turn away </em> from Izaya, he didn’t walk away from a fight.</p><p>Certainly, the Shizuo Izaya had known didn’t submit to someone else’s touch and back down from the Raven’s taunting like a domesticated dog.</p><p>Abruptly, the tightness in his chest turned to a strangling, agonizing ache that spread through his chest, working its way down his arms and into his throat. Unable to make sense of the feeling or the frantic thoughts flying through his head, Izaya took several steps away from the place he’d seen Shizuo vanish, <em> needing </em> to put distance between himself and what he’d just seen.</p><p><em> What Shizuo does in his free time isn’t my problem, </em> Izaya told himself, a heavy, immovable lump forming in his throat as his feet carried him resolutely forward, completely disconnected from the disjointed emotions skittering through the man’s insides. <em> As if he can make a relationship last, even with that beast of a woman. </em></p><p>
  <em> Even if she’s around, I can still play my usual games with him. </em>
</p><p>What a ridiculous thought.</p><p>The lump in his throat was getting bigger. Coughing, the Raven attempted to dislodge the growing discomfort, as if it was a physical thing.</p><p>Except once he’d started, he found he couldn’t stop.</p><p>As the coughing grew worse, heavy and painful, Izaya ducked into a nearby alley so he could lean against the wall and hack helplessly. The lump in his throat was actually coming up, inducing a horrible, vomit-like sensation. Thoughts of Shizuo vanishing for a moment as confusion and pain took their place, Izaya drew further into the alley, a hand going for his stomach while the other kept him from toppling over.</p><p><em> Something </em> was working its way up his throat.</p><p>Shutting his eyes tightly against the pain, Izaya gagged fiercely and felt something spill out of his mouth. Opening his eyes, half expecting to see his lunch splattered over the ground, the Raven found himself blinking blearily in bewilderment, even as he kept choking and spluttering.</p><p>Because scattered over the dirty pavement were long, bright yellow petals.</p><p>Falling to his knees despite himself as another, larger lump began working its way up his already abused throat, Izaya felt a detached sort of horror as something large pushed itself out of his mouth before tumbling to the ground attop the pile of petals.</p><p>It was a bloody, yellow flower.</p><p>As the coughing finally abated, Izaya scrambled back, horror battling with confusion. The first thought that came to him was a rather asinine one in the form of, <em> I don’t recall eating any flowers today. </em> But it was quickly eclipsed by rationality. <em> Why the hell did I just cough up flowers? What happened to me? </em></p><p>Drawing in a shuddering breath, the Raven dragged the sleeve of his coat over his forehead, wiping away the sweat that had beaded there. Though he knew it was pointless, his mind was already going over a comprehensive play-by-play of the last few days. Everything he’d eaten, everyone he’d spoken to, everywhere he’d been, it all flashed through his head as he struggled to find a link.</p><p>But there was nothing. No flower patches had been fallen asleep in. He hadn’t been tortured in any small concrete rooms of late. Nothing had been consumed that hadn’t either been personally prepared, or made for him by Namie. If he was being honest, the last few days had been hopelessly mundane, especially by Izaya’s standards.</p><p>
  <em> So why this? Why flowers? </em>
</p><p>Perhaps a lesser being would have panicked, but Izaya pushed irrationality into a corner of his skull so he could think clearly. Even though clear thought wasn’t getting him anywhere.</p><p>
  <em> I should look this up, find out if this is a… Common problem. </em>
</p><p>Giving another experimental cough, Izaya waited for that pressure in his throat to reappear, but nothing happened. <em> Maybe it was a one time thing? </em> Still, he should do his due diligence. It wouldn’t be good for <em> anyone </em> if Izaya Orihara died choking on inexplicable yellow flowers.</p><p>Drawing closer to the bloodied yellow flower, the Raven stooped down and, after a moment’s hesitation, picked up the blossom. It was most definitely real. Despite its strange origin, it looked healthy and felt very much alive. Running fingers over the velvety petals, Izaya drew a slow, steadying breath.</p><p>
  <em> I can worry about this later. </em>
</p><p>If it happened again, he reasoned, he could talk to Shinra. But for now, he had other things to do, and Izaya Orihara wasn’t the type of person to slow down just because of an unknown illness, especially if it wasn’t actively preventing him from working. Humming tunelessly under his breath, the man stuffed the yellow flower into one of his pockets and walked back towards the main street, appearing entirely unconcerned, despite his lingering bafflement.</p><p>If you had asked, he would have denied the tightness that persisted in his chest.</p><p>At least he wasn’t thinking about Shizuo anymore.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. The Second Time</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Fun note, both this chapter and the last have the exact same word count.</p><p>Not so fun note, angst.</p><p>Enjoy~</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>When he finally made it back to his apartment that evening, after the sun had set and the night air had become vaguely brusk though not enough to chill him, Izaya finally spared another thought for the flower in his pocket.</p><p>It had wilted slightly, the time spent getting knocked around as the Raven cavorted over Ikebukuro doing nothing good, but the yellow bloom was still vaguely alive, cheekily spreading its petals as though to mock the man who held it. Staring at it, remembering the exceptional discomfort it had caused when exiting his body, Izaya sneered slightly, as though an inanimate object had any sentience with which to understand his derision. It disgusted him, in a visceral way that shouldn’t have been possible.</p><p>He’d told himself he would research this potential problem, but now that he was looking down at the innocent bloom, with its petals speckled with the rust of dried blood, the temptation to simply throw the thing away and forget about the whole incident crossed his mind.</p><p>Which was never a good thing. Izaya prided himself on, among other things, his thoroughness. If he threw out the flower now, he would be doing himself a disservice. Recalling the moment he’d started coughing, before he’d stumbled into the alley, the man tried to find anything that could have triggered it, something he’d have to go off of <em> other </em> than bloody petals.</p><p>Vaguely, he remembered his chest hurting, but that memory was eclipsed by a crystal clear image of Shizuo, walking into that Ramen shop, obediently following after Vorona. As his stomach began to work itself into a nasty knot, Izaya banished the thought. After all, there was no connection between his current problem and that little revelation. Thinking about it would only serve as a <em> distraction. </em></p><p>So it was with no small amount of irritation still bubbling in his gut that he turned on his computers and began what he expected was going to be a long, grueling, and above all, fruitless search.</p><p>He was not disappointed.</p><p>By three in the morning, the only thing the Raven had found was several freak reports of other people coughing up flowers within the past fifty years, and a handful of useless fairytales.</p><p>Now, he could understand the irony of <em> him, </em> of all people, discounting fairytales, considering the city he lived in and the people he did dealings with, but even Izaya had his limits. At a certain point, he became unable to suspend his disbelief any further, and things just started to sound ridiculous. Because yes, there were <em> stories </em> of people throughout the ages coughing up flowers, but the reasons didn’t seem consistent, and the solutions offered up were… <em> idiotic </em> at best.</p><p>The scant documented medical reports were a little more promising, but after quite extensive scouring of said incidents, Izaya found half of them had been misleading, and the half that weren’t- </p><p>Well, alright, <em> those </em> sounded quite close to what he had experienced. Namely, a tightening in the chest, followed by the expulsion of flowers from the throat and mouth. Almost like vomit, but not quite. Unfortunately, it was a dead end, because no one seemed able to agree on what caused it, and the people who had suffered from the freak incidents had never submitted themselves to further testing.</p><p>In conclusion, Izaya’s one lead had gone nowhere.</p><p>Naturally, he did his due diligence and checked corresponding coroner reports, just to see if any of these cases had resulted in sudden and inexplicable deaths, but of the seven cases he’d been able to find, only two victims had died untimely deaths. According to the official documents, one woman had died from a prolonged and severe case of pneumonia, which most definitely did <em> not </em> have anything to do with flowers.</p><p>The other, a man, had died due to heart problems. Again, not a flower in sight.</p><p>The blossom beside Izaya continued to wilt as he searched, its petals drooping sadly and losing their vibrancy.</p><p>As dawn began to poke its head over the horizon, Izaya finally gave up. It seemed like his freak flower accident had been just that; a freak accident, one that probably wouldn’t repeat and didn’t bear worrying over.</p><p>If that changed and he puked flowers again, he had options. Shinra for one. Continued ignorance, for another.</p><p>There wasn’t any need to get worked up. So it was with a yawn that he left a note for Namie, stating that he’d be down at <em> some point </em> that morning, and to just do what she usually did in his absence, shut off his computers, and finally dragged himself to bed. </p><p>~・~</p><p>When he woke up at some point the next morning and pulled himself out of bed, Namie was indeed already working at her usual spot at the table. The only new addition was the bowl of water in the center of the table, and the long-petaled yellow flower floating in it.</p><p>Izaya stared at it for a solid minute when he first laid eyes on the makeshift vase. He wasn’t sure why, there was nothing remarkable about the flower other than its origin, but somehow, it felt wrong seeing it like this, just sitting out like it was something to be marveled at.</p><p>Namie caught his gaze and looked over at the flower herself.</p><p>“What, did you want me to get rid of it?” Her eyebrows drew together, one of them twitching slightly, as if in mild irritation. “I can’t read your mind Izaya.”</p><p>“No,” he found himself saying, answering both of his secretary’s statements with one word. Quickly flicking his eyes up to Namie’s face, Izaya gave her a smile, one that was equal parts mocking and indulgent. “If I wanted it gone, I would have thrown it away myself.”</p><p>For a moment, Namie simply glared at him, as if trying to decipher if he was being sincere or sarcastic. When his frozen expression gave nothing away, the woman simply shrugged and went back to her work. “I figured that was the case. Now get down here, Akabayashi left you a very strongly worded message this morning about a job you’re currently on and it’s not within my pay grade to deal with it.”</p><p>And like that, at least <em> this </em> piece of the Raven’s life returned to normal.</p><p>~・~</p><p>Whether everything else returned to normal, well, that was up for debate.</p><p>When it came to business, and the job Onishi had given him, Izaya did his due diligence. You’d think finding a single person in a place like Tokyo would be hard, even with her full name and a vague idea of what she looked like, and you’d be right.</p><p>But this was Izaya, and he was <em> better </em> than most. Much better.</p><p>He had a general idea of <em> where </em> Hanako Onishi was and who she spent her time around within that week. If he’d truly accepted the job just to find the girl, Izaya would have called it a day and turned over the requested information then and there, but obviously, he had other ideas.</p><p>Namie was correct when she said he always had ulterior motives.</p><p>So he kept an eye on her, and waited for other parts of his nebulous plans to fall into place. </p><p>He didn’t let the lull go to waste, however. Like the good little informant that he was, Izaya made sure his trips to Ikebukuro were fruitful, even if the fruit they were bearing had nothing to do with his current goal. After all, multitasking never hurt anyone.</p><p>Unfortunately for the residents of the city, his presence caused quite a stir, mostly because Izaya insured that it did. Work or no, there was always time for his favorite pastimes, and said pastimes never failed to wreak absolute and unadulterated havoc wherever he went.</p><p>After that chance encounter with Shizuo on his day off, however, Izaya found that there was a bad taste in his mouth whenever he went to taunt the beast. More now than ever before, he became aware of Vorona’s presence, her cool gray eyes that followed him when he enticed Shizuo into another fight. She was always there, which, granted, had been true before, but now seeing her left Izaya unbalanced.</p><p>Which was never a good thing when you were locked in high-speed combat with one such as Shizuo.</p><p>Typically, he did his best to ignore it. After all, in the grand scheme of things, her existence was relatively unimportant. Distilled down to its most analytical state, Shizuo was only a very small portion of Izaya’s life, and Vorona, someone he could count the number of conversations they’d had on one hand, was just a fraction of those interactions with the blond ex-bartender.</p><p>In fact, if given some time and dedication, Izaya was convinced he could forget about the woman’s existence entirely.</p><p>Even if Shizuo was involved with her, romantically or otherwise, Izaya was not, and had no intention of becoming so. <em> What the beast does in his spare time is not my problem, </em> it was a mantra that he repeated in his head whenever those weird, bitter emotions rose up in his chest. <em> I have no reason to react to Vorona like this, like a scorned lover. </em></p><p>One such interaction stood out in his mind starkly, a reminder of why Shizuo’s life and affairs should be kept at arm's length.</p><p>It had been a fight like any other. Eyes like ichor blazed from behind blue tinted sunglasses, a street light yanked from the ground like a displaced weed was hoisted into the air in preparation for what was to come. There had been a blade in Izaya’s palm, cool and gleaming, and he’d been smirking. Above them, the sun beat down oppressively, making the ground shimmer as though under a mirage.</p><p>As usual, the Raven had been speaking extemporaneously, amiably chatting about whatever came to the forefront of his mind. He’d never had a reason to hide his thoughts from Shizuo before, after all. The beast wasn’t human, hardly counted as sentient. Who cared what Izaya told him, it wasn’t like the information went anywhere. It simply passed through one ear and out the other. </p><p>At that moment, he had been delightedly talking about his current job, about Hanako and her father and all of the delicious excitement that promised to spring from something so little.</p><p>The street light had come hurtling towards him, but Izaya had paid it no mind, simply vaulting over it before landing neatly on the pavement below. “Really Shizu-chan, that anger of yours is going to get you nowhere. Why, you’ve distracted me from my story!”</p><p>Chrome flashed through the air, Shizuo had managed to leap back in time to avoid it nicking his skin. “I don’t give a <em> fuck </em> about your story, I-za-ya, get the fuck out of my city!” Flying fists had swung at Izaya as the Blond advanced once more, pursuing him down the pavement. Izaya had simply dodged, smoothly ducking and weaving as though he had wings and not legs, avoiding every strike with ease.</p><p>“Oh but it’s so <em> interesting, </em> Shizu-chan, though I’d hardly imagine a beast like you can understand~” Another block, another roar from his monster. It had been as delightful as it was distracting. “You see, in the end, the right thing to do would have been to ignore the job entirely!”</p><p>Shizuo had not dignified him with a verbal response, instead choosing to let out a bellowing sound of rage before rushing forward, grabbing a trashcan as he did so he could use it like a battering ram. That hadn’t stopped Izaya, however, he’d just kept talking, enjoying the wind whistling through his hair and the smell of cigarette smoke that filled the little, empty spaces in his brain.</p><p>At that point, they’d been far away from Tom, or Vorona, or anything else that could have stopped their fight. Izaya was perfectly content to meld with the motions, let instinct carry his body and adrenaline fill his limbs.</p><p>“Obviously, with the alcohol problem that Onishi-san has, he’s mistreating Hanako-san. Quite badly if she’s willing to run into the arms of a gang member without a second thought.” Though the subject had been potentially heavy, Izaya’s voice was light, breathless with the exertion he was dealing with.</p><p>“I don’t give a shit about whatever twisted stuff you’re doing, you louse!” Shizuo’s roar had shaken birds from their trees and sent pedestrians scattering. At least, the ones brave enough to still be around. “Just shut the fuck up and let me crush you!”</p><p>Spinning smoothly, Izaya had ducked under one particularly wild swing of Shizuo’s fist, and came up behind the man. Skimming his blade along the beast’s neck, not enough to do any lasting damage but hard enough to draw blood, Izaya had crooned, “Ah but <em> I </em> care, Shizu-chan. I find it absolutely amusing that Onishi-san should have come to me about this when it’s quite obvious that I’d discover what he’d been doing to his daughter behind closed doors.”</p><p>Shizuo had turned, arms already flying out to grab Izaya. It had been too easy to skip away, use a nearby railing as a launch point, then leap attop an awning of a nearby shop. “I’m sure that if I were to approach Hanako-san right now, she’d still be covered in <em> bruises. </em> Isn’t that simply <em> delightful, </em> the idea that a man such as Onishi-san would be worried about the safety of his daughter when in reality, he is the one to be feared.”</p><p>“You’re the one they should be afraid of,” Shizuo had spat, heaving a street sign over his head like it weighed nothing at all. “I can’t imagine why <em> anyone </em> would talk to you willingly, Flea.”</p><p>“Oh, you’d be surprised!” Izaya called back, ducking as the makeshift javelin impaled itself over his head. “People come to me all the time, my dear beast. The rich want more influence, the powerful want to know who’s going to stab them in the back. Even someone like Onishi-san needs to know things, like which company he should look out for, or if his daughter is out from under his thumb at last.”</p><p>“You’re disgusting,” Shizuo had growled, as though that was a matter that was up for debate.</p><p>Instead of denying the claim, Izaya had simply leaned forward, slipping down the awning until he was close enough that Shizuo could have jumped up and grabbed him. “Ne, even <em> you </em> spend time around me Shizu-chan. I’m in such high demand, even the fearsome monster of Ikebukuro can’t stay away.”</p><p>“More like I can’t stand to have you near me!”</p><p>“Ah, but if it weren’t for me, who would you spend your time with?” And the moment he had asked the question, Izaya had felt his chest constrict, tightening painfully as he realized what a stupid question that was.</p><p>There were likely thousands of people Shizuo would have rather spent time around than Izaya. And at the forefront of all of those was Vorona, who instantly surged into Izaya’s mind like a damming reminder of why calling Shizuo <em> his </em> monster was as of now incorrect.</p><p>Like a good little beast, Shizuo had answered, however, entirely unaware of the thoughts swirling around in the Raven’s mind.  “I could spend it with my friends, people who aren’t trying to destroy my life.”</p><p>“Like Tom-san,” Izaya had suggested smoothly, his eyes growing distant for a moment, before frosting over and narrowing maliciously. “Or Vorona?”</p><p>“Either of them would be much fucking better than <em> you.” </em></p><p>He’d left after that, fighting the clenching in his chest and the churning in his stomach too much to be good for any more combat. Shizuo was of course right, Izaya was his enemy, nothing less and certainly nothing more. If he wanted to be happy, he would spend time around the people in his life who cared.</p><p>Izaya was the thorn in his side.</p><p>Vorona was the face of the good that Shizuo had no doubt earned.</p><p>Clearly, the only reason Izaya spared it any mind at all was because he wanted Shizuo to suffer, and him being happy and calmer made tormenting him more difficult.</p><p>Nevermind that he knew that was untrue, knew his incessant needling of the Blond was born of a much deeper, much more shameful reason, but he ignored that too. In the end, reasons aside, Shizuo still chased after him, and it was the Raven’s name on his lips when he did.</p><p>Not the name of a Russian with platinum hair and clear, calm eyes.</p><p>Izaya tended not to think about it too hard.</p><p>And, after a month of it, even this slight shift in the Raven’s mental state felt normal. He became undeniably used to it. Dancing around the Blond, distracting him from his job and Vorona and whatever else he had on his mind, and coaxing him into a rage, it was second nature once again. Shizuo was a monster, through and through, whatever else he was when Izaya wasn’t around, the Raven refused to let the man forget his true calling.</p><p>Blessedly, Izaya learned to work past the tight feeling he got in his chest whenever he stumbled upon Shizuo, developed ways to even his breathing, and calm his racing heart. There was no reason to react to the Blond in such ways, so he simply stopped.</p><p>Controlling his body in such a way, after all, was much easier than contemplating <em> why </em> he was reacting that way in the first place.</p><p>In this manner, life moved on.</p><p>~・~</p><p>The bloom in the dish on his dining room table finally wilted, died, and withered into nothing. One day, Izaya was staring at a browning, limp mess. The next, Namie had thrown it away, and he all but forgot about it.</p><p>~・~</p><p>It took two months and a handful of days before Izaya ever had to remember the flowers, or their potential significance. And just as with the last occurrence, it came at the strangest possible time.</p><p>He was in a small, corner cafe. Every wall was painted with a mellow, pale yellow, accenting perfectly the blue of the seats, and the grey of the tables. The windows up front were clean, and happy light streamed through them, reflecting off of the tidy floor. </p><p>The man who’d brought him his drink smiled brightly in response to Izaya’s murmured thanks, not a care in the world.</p><p>It was exactly the place you wouldn’t imagine the Raven spending his time, which generally was the point. After all, going unnoticed was only easy if you made it easy, and Izaya liked to keep as many aspects of his life simple as was physically possible. As for who he was trying to avoid, well take your pick. Izaya had more enemies than most humans had acquaintances.</p><p>A perfect example was the teen currently sitting across from the Raven.</p><p>Was he a teen anymore? Izaya had forgotten how old Masaomi Kida was a long time ago, and hadn’t bothered to ask again. Among his <em> enemies, </em> this boy hardly registered. Izaya wouldn’t have taken him seriously even if he’d made an active attempt on his life. Even if he’d had his Yellow Scarves at his back, the Raven would have laughed them off. </p><p>Calling him an enemy to be honest, was a misnomer. Kida likely saw Izaya as an enemy, Izaya simply found the boy amusing. You see, among his numerous business associates, <em> many </em> despised Izaya, even while they worked with and for him. When you got to be someone as influential as he was, that became the way of the world.</p><p>Currently, Kida worked off an on for him as a pair of eyes on the ground that could get into places Izaya was too well known to enter. The arrangement was mutually beneficial, to some degree. Kida got paid fairly, Izaya got the valuable kind of meta-information he needed to function smoothly. And they had enough history that the Raven could easily push the boy’s buttons when he needed to.</p><p>He did it then, taking a sip of the tea before him before asking, in a musing tone, “Do tell me Masaomi, how is Mikajima-san doing? I haven’t seen her in quite a while~”</p><p>At the sound of the girl’s name, Kida stiffened, his already brooding expression becoming a little more guarded. Izaya withheld a chuckle. It was just too easy for him to read the emotions flashing across the boy’s face, like child’s play.</p><p>“She’s fine,” Kida’s words were clipped, his eyes dark.</p><p>“How wonderful,” Izaya hummed, a finger trailing around the rim of his teacup. Gaze straying, the Raven continued, in a carefully pleasant tone, “After all, it would be a shame if any more harm befell her.”</p><p>“She’s not why I’m here, Izaya,” Kida snapped, words clipped and rough. Digging around in a pocket, the young blond pulled out a thumb drive and placed it on the table. “I’m here about the job.”</p><p>“Oh?” Instead of looking at the thumbdrive, Izaya’s eyes were drawn back to the boy sitting before him. Of course he’d known the purpose of this meeting, he’d been the one to set it up, after all, but he liked to keep people on their toes. And Kida made it so <em> rewarding. </em></p><p>Tapping the little black piece of plastic, the boy said, “I found what you asked for.” The discretion he spoke with was laughable, Izaya wouldn’t have chosen this cafe if there had been prying ears to worry about. People expected conversations like these to happen in back alleys.</p><p>Izaya spent enough time in those already, a place like this, with sweet smells filling the air and warm tea before him, this was much less conspicuous, and theoretically so much more pleasant.</p><p>Smiling, the pull of his thin lips never reaching his eyes, the Raven said, “I hope it wasn’t too difficult.” He knew it hadn’t been. Keeping tabs on this new gang, if that’s what they really were, was such a simple job that it was hardly worth mentioning. “Not that you couldn't have handled it if it were but I do <em>worry so."</em></p><p>Kida huffed, ignoring the mocking lilt in the Raven's voice. “Yeah, it wasn’t hard.” He was watching Izaya with suspicion, as though the ease of the task was incriminating. Crossing his arms, the boy leaned back in his chair and asked, “What do you want from them anyway, they aren’t even a threat to anyone.”</p><p>“But wouldn’t it be <em> fascinating </em> if they became one,” Izaya returned, lifting an eyebrow as he spoke.</p><p>Kida scowled in disbelief. “Seems a little far-fetched to me. They don’t have a particularly good foothold in Ikebukuro, and they’re only operating in one other district than Toshima.” Izaya nodded, confirming the information, all things he’d already been aware of. “So why would they be a problem.”</p><p>“Who knows~” Izaya said brightly. “In a city like this, you never know what might happen, ne?”</p><p>Expression darkening, the boy asked, “What are you plotting, Izaya?”</p><p><em> What are you plotting this time, </em> he didn’t say.</p><p>“Nothing that I’m paying you to ask questions about.” Smoothly taking a sip of his tea, the Raven took his sweet time in dragging the flash drive across the table, making a show of checking it to confirm its authenticity, before gently stowing it away within his coat.</p><p>“You own me,” Kida reminded him, ever impatient.</p><p>Tutting under his breath, Izaya said, “And you wound me, thinking that I’d ever short change you, Masaomi.”</p><p>Gracefully, the Raven extended the full envelope, his carmine eyes glittering. Kida took it with much more force, not looking at Izaya.  For all his clandestine act, there was nothing subtle about how he quickly counted the contents before stuffing the money into his own clothing. It was a blatant show of distrust.</p><p>More than anything else, it amused Izaya.</p><p>Leaning back in his chair, the man let out a breath, half a chuckle, half a hum. “Ah, this will make things much simpler.” Drifting his gaze to the window, to the glittering sunlight that refracted over the tables, he continued, “I wouldn’t worry yourself over this, Masaomi. After all, I’d hate to think you were losing sleep over matters beyond your control.”</p><p>Kida opened his mouth to respond. Izaya expected another accusation of scheming, which he wasn’t going to bother denying. Instead, he got a statement so plain as to be deceptively benign.</p><p>“You’ve been spending a lot of time in Ikebukruo lately.”</p><p>Well, that was true enough. Sliding his eyes towards the young blond, Izaya raised an eyebrow. “Indeed I have. There’s work to be done. Nothing for you to-”</p><p>“To worry about, yeah, I got that.” Despite their relationship as off and on employer and employee, there could not have been more distrust in Kida’s gaze. “Why would you bother sending me to get this stuff if you could have done it yourself?”</p><p><em> Dirty work is meant to be handled by other people. Is that not implied in this kind of transaction? </em> “I had other things to attend to.”</p><p>Kida snorted derisively. “Yeah, I bet you did.”</p><p>Waspishly, Izaya said, “I feel as though you’re implying something, Masaomi. Need I remind you that I am the one paying you?”</p><p>Though it gave the boy pause for a moment, he quickly shrugged off the veiled threat. “I don’t think I need to imply <em> anything, </em> everyone knows you get off on making people miserable.”</p><p>For some reason, the words reminded Izaya of a certain fight with a certain blond bodyguard. Instantly, his mood soured. “You say that like I do it indiscriminately,” Izaya said lightly, lifting his tea to his lips once more. “I assure you, if that were the case, I wouldn’t have time to breathe.”</p><p>“You definitely don’t target the people who deserve it,” Kida grumbled, revealing his inner thoughts just a little too well.</p><p>Really, he needed to be going. He had other plans for today, this was taking up valuable time. But the young blond had annoyed him already, even if it had been in a way Kida hadn’t intended. It would be fun, the Raven thought, to needle him for a bit.</p><p>“And what would you define as a good target?” Izaya asked, indulging himself. “A bad person? A cackling maniacal villain?” When Kida shifted in his seat, the man pressed further, crimson eyes gleaming as he did so. “Or if you could make someone miserable, would it simply be a person who had inconvenienced you?”</p><p>Thinking about it for a moment, Kida finally said, “It’d be better than what you do. You don’t care if a person is good or not.”</p><p>“No,” Izaya agreed, a grin forming on his face. “Because I am not the moral arbiter of humanity. If I am going to torment someone, it will be for purely self-serving reasons. I can’t be bothered to discover someone’s full history, find out if they are good or bad. If they are worthy of pain.”</p><p>He leaned forward across the table, his presence looming. “But I can very easily point to the people who have inconvenienced me, or caused me annoyance.” Then, after a moment’s contemplation, he added, “And of course, there are those I torment simply because it’s fun.”</p><p>“Like Heiwajima-san.”</p><p>Instantly, Izaya’s eyes grew sharp. “Yes,” he said, recalling Shizuo’s cry of, <em> I can’t stand to have you near me! </em> “Like him. Though I assure you, ours is a deep and mutual hatred. He likes to torment me just as much as I, him.”</p><p>“I don’t know about that,” Kida mused unexpectedly, becoming fixated on the middle distance over Izaya’s right shoulder. “You showing up every few days is the only reason he remembers you at all. I’m pretty sure he’d forget if you left him alone.”</p><p>Izaya’s insides curled. It wasn’t the first time he’d heard the words. Shizuo had shouted similar at him before, Shinra had attempted to convince him of the same. But hearing them like this… his jaw tightened imperceptibly. “Don’t be ridiculous, Shizu-chan is a monster. Once he’s fixated on something you can’t distract him.”</p><p>“I think he’s been calming down lately.” For someone so distrustful of Izaya, there was a surprising lack of motive behind Kida’s words. He was just being honest, speaking his mind rather than trying to twist his sentences into some sort of trap for the Raven.</p><p>Admittedly, It was frustrating.</p><p>“That beast doesn’t calm down.” Why he was protesting, Izaya didn’t know. He could just leave, end the conversation then.</p><p>Shaking his head, Kida insisted, “When you’re not around, he’s actually been pretty quiet.” Mouth rising in a smile, he continued, “I think it’s because of that Russian chick he’s hanging around.”</p><p>“Believe me,” Izaya spat, bracing himself for the inexplicable pain in his chest. “She has no power to stop that monster from wreaking havoc.”</p><p>Ignoring what the Raven had said, Kida rubbed the back of his neck, still smiling. “I’m pretty sure they’re together or something.”</p><p>Though he’d been expecting the pain, Izaya was still left breathless by the force of the thing constricting his insides, strangling his lungs and causing his heart to sputter in his chest. <em> No, this is stupid, why am I reacting like this. He’s not saying anything I don’t already know. </em> “Perhaps you’re imagining things, Masaomi,” he bit out, his smile forced.</p><p>As if only just realizing what he was saying and the effect it was having on the informant before him, the boy broke out into a full grin, one that he directed at Izaya. “Or maybe even you can’t stop people from being happy.” </p><p>A lump formed in Izaya’s throat. Whether it was from anger or from something else, he didn’t know.</p><p>Getting to his feet, Kida stretched, looking much happier than he had when he walked in. “Well, I’ll be around. You know how to reach me if you need me~”</p><p>And then Izaya was alone, with his traitorous thoughts, and the pain in his chest that wouldn’t go away.</p><p>
  <em> Forget me? Feh, as if. Shizuo couldn’t forget me if he tried. Suggesting otherwise is nonsense. Utter nonsense. Even that woman cannot distract the beast that much. </em>
</p><p>His insides convulsed, forcing from the Raven a little cough. Then a much bigger one.</p><p><em> Something </em> crawled up his throat, something that made him gag. Spitting it out, resisting the urge to cough further, Izaya felt the blood drain from his face.</p><p>A single yellow petal lay in his hand.</p><p>Suddenly his insides rebelled and Izaya found himself stumbling helplessly towards the bathroom, struggling vainly to hold back the violent coughing and retching that had overtaken him. There was hardly time to close the door behind him before the full brunt of the attack was upon him, hitting the Raven with enough force to drop him to the tile floor.</p><p>Wad after wad of petals were pushing their way up his throat. Helplessly, Izaya watched them scatter at his feet, making a mess of his knees, jacket, and the floor. The bathroom began to smell of flowers, a faint, cloying sweetness that clogged his nose and filled his head. Distantly, he hoped that it would end, but his body had other ideas for him.</p><p>Next thing he knew he was bringing up whole flowers, blossoms just like the one that had sat in the center of his table for days. Shutting his eyes against the pain, of his throat and of his chest, Izaya braced himself against the wall, his whole body shuddering as bloom after yellow bloom forced their way up from his insides.</p><p>Then it was over, and Izaya was left to sag against the dirty bathroom wall, unable to so much as move a muscle.</p><p>It had happened again, he thought vaguely, blurry eyes opening to survey the scattered remains of his coughing fit. The thing he’d deemed a freak accident, hardly worth thinking about, had happened again.</p><p>Though his ribs and throat ached, Izaya realized with horror that the real pain seemed to be coming from his heart.</p><p>This time he didn’t reach out and touch the flowers. Instead, the man surged to his feet on shaky legs and made a beeline for the sink. Leaning heavily on it, Izaya turned on the cold water and all but drenched his face with it, trying to clean off the remnants of what had just happened.</p><p>When he glanced up in the mirror, he could see the bloody blooms still scattered haphazardly over the floor.</p><p><em> I need to talk to Shinra, </em> Izaya thought, with no small amount of dread. Something was wrong with him, horribly so. And he needed to know what it was, before it had the chance to get worse.</p><p>Wiping his face with the sleeve of his coat vigorously for good measure, the Raven stumbled towards the door, determined to get as far away from the mess he’d made as possible. <em> I’m fine, </em> he told himself, resolutely ignoring the pain in his chest. <em> This is all just a freak happening, I’m fine. </em></p><p>The chances of that being true, Izaya realized as he left some yen at his table before pushing out of the cafe, seemed to be rather slim.</p><p>Without waiting another moment, the Raven pulled out his phone and dialed Shinra’s number.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Bleugh, I'm not sure if I like that end bit, it felt a little forced, and I'm not <em>great</em> with Kida's character. I have a much better handle on the grown-ups of Durarara.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Hanahaki</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I apologize for how late this chapter is! I've been having stomach pains for the past few days and absolutely no motivation to write anything.</p><p>But I hope this chapter makes up for it.</p><p>Enjoy~</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>“Hanahaki disease?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Izaya hadn’t been sure </span>
  <em>
    <span>what</span>
  </em>
  <span> he expected from Shinra, but the unrestrained delight on the doctor’s face was… Alright, actually that part </span>
  <em>
    <span>was</span>
  </em>
  <span> expected. It would have been stranger if he </span>
  <em>
    <span>hadn’t</span>
  </em>
  <span> gotten excited over the oddity of Izaya’s condition. What the Raven hadn’t been anticipating, however, was how quickly the man had produced an answer as to what his mystery ailment was.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It matches up perfectly,” Shinra insisted, leaning over the back of his desk chair and watching Izaya with a twitching, animated grin stretching his cheeks. “The chest pains, the flowers, the blood… I mean, I can’t go so far as to say it’s a </span>
  <em>
    <span>classic</span>
  </em>
  <span> case, but judging by my limited experience, I’d say that’s what you have.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>With a sigh, Izaya pinched at the bridge of his nose. The walk to Shinra’s place had given him a number of things, the most fortuitous of which being his improved mental state. Granted, his panic at having puked up flowers had probably been entirely reasonable, but the initial shock had settled somewhat, and Izaya was doing his best to look at his current predicament logically.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Shinra, naturally, was not helping.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Saying  it’s classic doesn’t help me. What </span>
  <em>
    <span>is</span>
  </em>
  <span> this disease, Shinra?” he asked, attempting and failing to keep the irritation out of his tone.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Ara, I would have thought it was obvious with the name,” tittered the doctor, adjusting his glasses as he spoke. “But I mean, if it’s that complicated, then-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No no,” Izaya hurried to say, stymieing the inevitable language lesson Shinra had been preparing to give. “Obviously it means I’m throwing up flowers, but </span>
  <em>
    <span>why</span>
  </em>
  <span> am I throwing up flowers, Shinra.” Because quite clearly </span>
  <em>
    <span>that</span>
  </em>
  <span> was the important question to be asking. “The medical records I was able to find when I did my own research were flimsy at best,” he continued. “The first time this happened, I was willing to overlook it but with this second attack, I figured it was only prudent to-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Wait, this is the second time?” Shinra was instantly grabbing for a clipboard and pencil, his eyes gleaming from behind his glasses. “You never told me about the first time, why didn’t you come to me immediately when this started?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Because I didn’t think it was anything worth mentioning,” Izaya muttered, suddenly feeling uncomfortable. In truth, he knew why he hadn’t said anything to Shinra. It was because some stupid part of his subconscious had insisted that the problem would </span>
  <em>
    <span>be</span>
  </em>
  <span> nothing if he treated it like it was nothing. Unfortunately, the foolishness of that plan had caught up with him, quite quickly if he was any judge.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>And Shinra’s expression wasn’t making things any better.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“So the first time it happened was… how long ago? A year? Two years?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Izaya’s brows lifted, but he resisted the urge to comment on how </span>
  <em>
    <span>off</span>
  </em>
  <span> the guesses had been. “Two months and a few days.” Nibbling on the inside of his cheek, the Raven admitted, “I… have lost count of the exact amount of time. It wasn’t something I wanted to-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Two months?” Shinra’s pencil skated over his papers frantically. “Well, I mean, it’s been a long time since I’ve gotten to see a similar case, but-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You’ve seen this disease before?” Remembering his own fruitless search, and how </span>
  <em>
    <span>rare</span>
  </em>
  <span> cases like his seemed to be, Izaya couldn’t help his curiosity.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Picking up on that emotion, Shinra nodded excitedly. “I mean, I say </span>
  <em>
    <span>I</span>
  </em>
  <span> studied it. Actually it was my father. He had a patient with a similar problem to yours. She came to him throwing up flowers, and there wasn’t any obvious reason for it, so he studied her condition for a while. Though he only told me bits and pieces… I suppose it stuck with me.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>That probably meant there were records. No doubt ones that were much more thorough than anything Izaya had been able to find online. “Why is two months strange?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>At his words, the doctor’s mouth snapped shut for a moment, and he glanced around the room, as if casting about for the answer. “Er, well, it’s been a while since I last-” Clearing his throat, Shinra attempted to put on a more professional face. “Well, theoretically it’s supposed to start off with the episodes a little further apart.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“A little further as in…” Sometimes, you couldn’t stop the flow of information from Shinra. Sometimes, it was like pulling teeth. Izaya was never sure which side of the doctor he preferred because both were equally frustrating.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well further as in a few years.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Ah, I see.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Shinra hurried ahead before Izaya had a chance to ask another question, “But that doesn’t mean much. I don’t remember the details of the last incident, and every case is probably different.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Do you still have access to your father’s records?” Izaya questioned, his tone carefully bland. It might be a long shot, Shinra’s relations with Shingen Kishitani were generally good, but you could never be sure when it came to things like this.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I mean, if it’s absolutely necessary.” Shinra gave a laugh, one of his famously awkward ones that said more clearly than words that he was stretching the truth. “But honestly, I don’t think it’s going to be that complicated. The disease and the cure are pretty simple.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Izaya’s eyebrows lifted. “I fail to see how coughing up flowers is simple.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Slipping out of his chair, clipboard still in hand, Shinra hummed, “Well, I’d have to do an x-ray to give you a more concrete visual, but you know that sensation you described? The one where it felt like your chest was being strangled?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yes?” Izaya said tentatively, his eyes following the doctor as he danced about his apartment, searching his shelves for </span>
  <em>
    <span>something.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well, as you might have already guessed-” Shinra pulled a book from its resting place before hurrying over to the couch across from Izaya. “That pain and the subsequent flowers you cough up are caused by the plant that’s currently growing in your lungs.”</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>The what?</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>“Ah,” the Raven repeated, his voice faint. </span>
  <em>
    <span>“I see.”</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>He didn’t see, actually. It </span>
  <em>
    <span>sounded</span>
  </em>
  <span> ridiculous. Oh of course Izaya had heard of freak accidents, typically in poverty stricken areas, where the general level of hygiene was so bad that people had been known to sprout plants from parts of their body. But those were understandable, if horrifying.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>This was most definitely not </span>
  <em>
    <span>that.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>“You look skeptical,” Shinra hummed, though he hadn’t so much as glanced up from the book he was quickly flipping through. Upon examination, Izaya found it to be a rather dusty tome, one that hardly looked medical, much less reputable. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Then again, this man is living with a headless fairy. Shinra’s standards have always been a little skewed.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>In all fairness, Izaya’s standards were also a little wonky, but he’d always tended towards skepticism, if only for the sake of his own sanity.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Letting out a sigh, the Raven said, “Look, Shinra, while I don’t doubt your skill and knowledge in the field of medicine-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You’ve always doubted me.”</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“-I hardly think it’s natural</span>
  </em>
  <span> to start sprouting plants in my </span>
  <em>
    <span>lungs</span>
  </em>
  <span> when I am in fair health and have taken decent care of myself,” Izaya finished, ignoring Shinra’s comment. “While I admire your certainty and… </span>
  <em>
    <span>Enthusiasm,</span>
  </em>
  <span> I find myself unconvinced.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Why?” Shinra asked, as though it wasn’t obvious.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Exasperated, Izaya snapped, “Because there must be another explanation. This kind of nonsense sounds like-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Magic?” The doctor’s eyes gleamed. “Because that’s what it is. Don’t worry, it’s not a natural disease at all.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Not in the least bit reassured, Izaya decidedly shut his mouth and waited for Shinra to continue.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“From what I know,” Shinra began again, after deciding that Izaya wasn’t going to interrupt. “The plant doesn’t require </span>
  <em>
    <span>normal</span>
  </em>
  <span> things to grow. No need for sun, soil, or even water, though the flowers that sprout are completely alive and don’t seem to be unnatural in any way.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Fantastic,” Izaya muttered under his breath. “Just… Wonderful. Ne, I was looking for something to make my life more interesting. Of course I have some sort of magical disease.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Catching the last part of the Raven’s thought, Shinra looked up from his book. “It’s actually quite amazing. The condition itself is very rare, less than one case per year worldwide, my father told me. And most people who get it have no idea what’s actually happening to them, so it’s passed off as something else.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Mysteriously, Shinra, I do not find this as </span>
  <em>
    <span>amazing</span>
  </em>
  <span> as you do,” Izaya stated testily.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh, well, yes. I suppose you wouldn’t…” Trailing off for a second, Shinra brightened as a thought visibly occurred to him. “That being said, you should </span>
  <em>
    <span>definitely</span>
  </em>
  <span> let me study you while you have it! A rare disease like this, with so little documented information on it. The advances I could make in this field would be fantastic, especially if I could pair it with my father’s research.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ignoring most of Shinra’s drivel, as he had become trained to do, Izaya honed in on one particular sentence. </span>
  <em>
    <span>“While</span>
  </em>
  <span> I have it?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well of course.” Shinra flipped the volume in his hands around and pointed to a short entry with the title </span>
  <em>
    <span>Hanahaki.</span>
  </em>
  <span> Beneath it, there was a small diagram; a cross section of a human, with a blooming rose vine wrapping itself around the human’s heart. “Considering how many magic illnesses there are out there, you happened to catch one with a relatively simple cure.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Finally, some good news. For the first time since he’d thrown up flowers all over the cafe’s bathroom floor, Izaya allowed himself to fully relax. “Relatively simple sounds good,” he said, fixing his eyes on the doctor before him. “Do you mind elaborating?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The mood of the room shifted slightly.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I don’t have </span>
  <em>
    <span>all</span>
  </em>
  <span> the details,” Shinra admitted, abruptly glancing away from Izaya. “It’s been a long time since my father dealt with it, and as I’ve already mentioned he didn’t tell me everything, just the very basics.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Suspicious, Izaya frowned. “Ne, you made it sound </span>
  <em>
    <span>easy</span>
  </em>
  <span> Shinra. There’s no need to beat around the bush.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Wincing, Shinra snapped the book closed and held it up, almost like a shield. “Alright, but you have to promise not to hurt me.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Impatiently scoffing, the Raven snapped, “Don’t be ridiculous, Shinra. I came to you for answers, I’m not going to kill you once you’ve given them to me.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yes but this is a different case than most.” Letting out another one of those uncomfortable giggles, the doctor continued, “It’s not exactly the most </span>
  <em>
    <span>normal</span>
  </em>
  <span> of illnesses, you understand. I mean, the fact that you’re sprouting flowers at all is quite strange, but the solution… Ara, it sounds a little crazy.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“My opinion on your sanity literally cannot get any worse,” Izaya reassured the man.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Shinra cringed. “I have to ask you an important question, then.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>With all the patience of a saint, Izaya waited.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Izaya, are you… In love with anyone?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The Raven blinked. Then he blinked again, more rapidly this time. From somewhere in his chest, a laugh began to bubble up and push itself from his mouth. Though it took him by surprise, the emotion in it was genuine. “I- What?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Even in the face of Izaya’s reaction, Shinra’s expression remained the same. “Are you in love?” he repeated.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The complete </span>
  <em>
    <span>absurdity</span>
  </em>
  <span> of it only prompted more laughter, enough that Izaya doubled over with it, clutching at his sides as they began to ache. Him? Izaya? In love with someone? The very idea was ludicrous, absolutely insane. Perhaps under most circumstances he would have chastised Shinra for such an invasive question, but at that moment he’d expected the doctor to ask him something serious and </span>
  <em>
    <span>this.</span>
  </em>
  <span>  Well, it had caught him off guard, to say the least.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Don’t be </span>
  <em>
    <span>ridiculous</span>
  </em>
  <span> Shinra,” the Raven gasped out, struggling to find his breath. “That is such a </span>
  <em>
    <span>stupid</span>
  </em>
  <span> question. You know full well that the only love I have is for humanity as a whole. I am not the type to be </span>
  <em>
    <span>in love.”</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>Shinra bit his bottom lip, as though Izaya’s statement worried him. “Usually I’d agree with you, Izaya. It’s- Well it’s honestly quite strange to think that you would have feelings for anyone.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Ne, ne, then why ask at all?” Izaya questioned, wiping tears of mirth from his eyes. “If you already know the answer then why bother?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Ah, you see…”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“And what does </span>
  <em>
    <span>this</span>
  </em>
  <span> have to do with me coughing up flowers,” Izaya added, cutting across the doctor’s dithering. “I might not expect </span>
  <em>
    <span>much</span>
  </em>
  <span> professionalism from you Shinra, but this is another level entirely.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m being serious.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The chill in Shinra’s voice gave Izaya pause.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Slowly, the Raven said, “I happen to be sincere as well, Shinra. I do not harbor feelings for any one particular person at this time.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Deliberately, like he was issuing a death sentence, Shinra stated, “Actually, you do.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>This time, Izaya didn’t laugh. Despite the air of incongruity hovering around the conversation, he was suddenly finding it very hard to make light of. “That is an impressive amount of certainty in something that isn’t true, Shinra,” he said, very carefully. “You almost have </span>
  <em>
    <span>me</span>
  </em>
  <span> convinced.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Izaya-” Shinra pressed his lips together, and the Raven couldn’t decide if the look on his face was one of exasperation or pity. “That’s what Hanahaki comes from. It’s a physical manifestation of unrequited love.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Was it now?</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Then it sounds miserable.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>“I must be suffering from something else then,” Izaya stated plainly, foregoing any verbal flourishes. “You said it yourself Shinra, it’s been a while since you’ve been exposed to a case like this. You’ve simply misread my symptoms. I’m sure with a little research, you’ll be able to find the true cause of these… flowery attacks.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>But Shinra was shaking his head, his eyebrows pinching together as he did. The book he’d been holding like a shield was lowered, and his mouth was twisted into an expression of sympathy. “I know it’s a very personal matter Izaya, and I know you of all people hate being open about what you’re feeling-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m feeling nothing but impatience with you for keeping up this charade,” Izaya said, gritting his teeth.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m </span>
  <em>
    <span>not</span>
  </em>
  <span> wrong in my diagnosis,” Shinra insisted, adjusting his glasses hotly. “It might have been years since my last exposure to it, but I know my magical illnesses when I see them. You have the Hanahaki disease, which means you’re in love with someone and you haven’t told them yet.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Though he wanted to argue further, Izaya realized that his current tact wasn’t getting through to Shinra in the slightest. “Alright,” he agreed, drawing in a deep, calming breath. “Let us say, for the sake of argument, that I </span>
  <em>
    <span>do</span>
  </em>
  <span> have this Hanahaki disease, and it isn’t, in fact, something else.” Shinra nodded, following along. “If all of this is true, then </span>
  <em>
    <span>who</span>
  </em>
  <span> do you propose me to be in love with?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Shrugging, Shinra said, “That’s not a question I can answer Izaya. You haven’t told me about anyone in particular, but then, you hardly tell me anything.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Shinra, I haven’t told you about anyone because there </span>
  <em>
    <span>is</span>
  </em>
  <span> no one.” Shaking his head, Izaya pressed two fingers to his temple. “I say this is ridiculous because I don’t </span>
  <em>
    <span>have</span>
  </em>
  <span> feelings for anyone. Coming down with this… Fairytale disease doesn’t change that. This isn’t the sort of thing that just </span>
  <em>
    <span>becomes</span>
  </em>
  <span> true because you say it is.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Helplessly, Shinra held up his hands. “I’m only telling you what I know.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It would be convenient if you were to know more,” Izaya hummed iritably.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I was planning on doing some digging anyway, but if you’d like I’ll keep you in the loop,” Shinra promised, attempting an encouraging smile. “But in the meantime, I’d suggest you figure out those unrequited feelings.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“And why should I do that?” Izaya questioned, lifting an eyebrow.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Because that’s how you cure Hanahaki,” Shinra explained, as though it was obvious. “By confessing your feelings to the person you love.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It was completely and utterly </span>
  <em>
    <span>asinine.</span>
  </em>
  <span> Izaya wanted to burst into laughter once again, but he couldn’t quite convince himself the reaction was justified. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Let us continue to assume that you are </span>
  <em>
    <span>correct</span>
  </em>
  <span> in your assessment,” Izaya suggested, his smile showing too many teeth. “How am I to </span>
  <em>
    <span>confess</span>
  </em>
  <span> if I don’t know who I’m confessing to.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’ll admit, that’s a little confusing to me as well,” Shinra said, scratching the back of his neck. “You’d think that if you loved someone enough to get sick over it, you’d at least </span>
  <em>
    <span>know</span>
  </em>
  <span> who it was but then-” He chuckled nervously. “This is you.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“And that’s supposed to mean?” Izaya questioned peevishly.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh,” Shinra tittered. </span>
  <em>
    <span>“You know.”</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>He didn’t know, but he was willing to admit he had bigger issues at the moment.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Let us say that I believe what you’ve told me thus far is true,” Izaya hummed, picking at his nails to distract himself from what felt like an overwhelmingly </span>
  <em>
    <span>stupid</span>
  </em>
  <span> situation. “Maintaining that I actually have Hanahaki and I’m in </span>
  <em>
    <span>love-”</span>
  </em>
  <span> Even though he was most definitely not. “What becomes of me if I don’t </span>
  <em>
    <span>confess these feelings.”</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>As expected, Shinra let out a stilted laugh. “Um... I don’t actually know. My father never told me. But-” he hurried to say, as Izaya’s smile widened frighteningly. “I’m sure I could dig up the information from his research if I-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Please do that,” Izaya insisted, getting to his feet and reaching for his coat.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>A long yellow petal fell from it as he shook it out, one that he purposefully ignored.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Wait, Izaya, where are you going?” Shinra asked, sounding alarmed. “You can’t just leave, you’re sick.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Then prescribe me pills for it, </span>
  <em>
    <span>doctor,”</span>
  </em>
  <span> Izaya hissed, somewhat mockingly. “I have work. Time does not simply stop because I have a slight cough.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“This is a lot worse than a cough.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Regardless.” Izaya’s smile bore no resistance, and after a moment of being treated to it, Shinra backed down.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Look, just… Contact me if it happens again.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He would do no such thing, especially if all the help he was going to get was more fairytale nonsense. </span>
  <em>
    <span>There has to be some reasonable explanation,</span>
  </em>
  <span> the logical part of his brain kept insisting, though with increasing uncertainty. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Perhaps if I was in love with someone, this would make sense, but I’m not, so it’s just nonsense</span>
  </em>
  <span>.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Of course Shinra, I would </span>
  <em>
    <span>hate</span>
  </em>
  <span> to deprive you of a chance to study your friends like lab specimens,” Izaya crooned indulgently, the lie coming as easily as breathing.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Though the wording seemed to upset the doctor, he didn’t rise to it. “Alright. I’ll call you once I get a hold of my father’s research. There’s probably a lot in there that would be useful to you.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>All Izaya did was hum in response and shrug on his coat.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>With any luck, this strange ailment would pass, and Shinra’s suspicions would turn out to be unfounded. With any luck, things would stay normal. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Izaya had a sneaking suspicion that they wouldn’t.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>~・~</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Of course, he was right about one thing. Life didn’t stop just because he was sick.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>After that conversation with Shinra, Izaya purposefully gave the flowers as little thought as possible. This willful ignorance extended to the apparent </span>
  <em>
    <span>cause</span>
  </em>
  <span> of the disease, and any errant thoughts that might have sprung up because of it.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Love.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It was </span>
  <em>
    <span>stupid.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>Izaya didn’t need to be uncommonly intelligent to know it was ridiculous. Him, in love? The very idea was preposterous. And with who? No, no no, it didn’t bear thinking about. There were far more important matters on his plate.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Which are of course what he focused on.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Another week passed without a single flower making its presence known. Though he hadn’t been holding his breath, the further he got from his last incident, the more relaxed he became.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Love? Shinra was talking nonsense.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He made a point of ignoring the doctor’s calls when they started, eight days after his visit, not particularly wanting to hear more.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Meanwhile, life progressed as it should have. His careful examination of the new Chinese gang finally gave him a name. </span>
  <span>Yīngsù. A little on the nose, in Izaya’s expert opinion, considering what their main export was, but he supposed not everyone was particularly creative.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He still kept an eye on Hanako, her and her completely unremarkable boyfriend Fan Cao. It was very boring, neither of them did anything particularly exciting, and even though Fan was part of a network of people that likely spread all the way back to mainland China, Izaya had trouble staying interested.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Part of him was tempted to simply tell Onishi-san where his daughter was and leave well enough alone. After that, it would take him a matter of days to dismantle the small, tentative branch of Yīngsù that had formed in Tokyo. It would be quick, and easy, and get both the worried father off his back and satisfy Shiki, who hadn’t left him alone about the matter since it had begun.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>But see, that would be too simple, altogether too messy, and not nearly as fun as Izaya intended to make the situation. Because a gang like this would not be deterred easily, and likely expected some sort of resistance to their burgeoning presence. If Izaya was going to stop them, and he intended to, then he was going to make it an event the leaders of the gang wouldn’t soon forget.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>And so he began to weave his plan; putting out feelers into the various smaller circles of the Yīngsù, and waiting for something to stick. Eventually, he’d find his way in, and then he could begin to scheme in earnest.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Namie complained briefly about the map of Tokyo that Izaya pinned to one of the bookshelves, claiming it made him look crazier than usual. His response had been to smile at her and ask her if she had expected anything different.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The next day, there was a whiteboard behind his desk, and a lovely set of magnets. When asked about it, Namie had ignored him entirely. Though it was probably meant as an insult, Izaya had decidedly taken it at face value and pinned the map to the board.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Two weeks passed without more yellow blooms.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Though he would never have said as much out loud, having something to distract him from the Hanahaki issue was a relief. If asked, Izaya would have claimed to anyone who would listen that he wasn’t worried, and hadn’t thought about it, but he knew it was a lie.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Flowers? Growing inside him? The very idea made his skin crawl. He considered going to a reputable doctor for a real x-ray, just to prove Shinra wrong. Swiftly, he dismissed the idea, citing the fact that telling anyone </span>
  <em>
    <span>normal</span>
  </em>
  <span> he had a plant growing in his lungs was more likely to get him referred to a psychiatrist, rather than a radiologist.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Deep down though, Izaya knew he avoided the issue because he was worried Shinra was right.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Another one of the doctor’s calls went to voicemail, and Izaya inhaled sharply before letting it out in a woosh, wondering if those flowers would ever make it hard to breathe.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>But, to the best of his knowledge, they didn’t. And he’d made sure to test, even though he wasn’t committed enough to do proper research on the disease for himself.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Of course, Izaya’s best stress test was Shizuo.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Being around the man brought up a whole host of other issues, unfortunately. Frustratingly, it was becoming harder and harder to coax Shizuo into a rage. It couldn’t be that Izaya had lost his edge, he’d been doing this for years, it was an </span>
  <em>
    <span>art.</span>
  </em>
  <span> No it clearly had more to do with Vorona, always hovering around </span>
  <em>
    <span>his monster,</span>
  </em>
  <span> telling him that fighting was useless, and that the Raven was nothing more than an annoyance.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Perhaps Kida had made a good point when he’d said that Shizuo would forget about him if given half the chance.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It took him a good two minutes of taunting to get the man even riled up, which was a new low for him. But the result had been an absolutely hair-raising fight that had left the Raven with adrenaline coursing through his blood and nothing on his mind but fiery yellow eyes. It was only after coming down from his high that Izaya took the time to consider whether his potential illness had affected his breathing.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Blessedly, it hadn’t. On the other hand, as Izaya thought back to Vorona, her hand on Shizuo’s shoulder and her voice very clearly commanding the blond to </span>
  <em>
    <span>calm down,</span>
  </em>
  <span> he found his chest tightening all the same. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>She had no right to do this, no right to take Shizuo away from him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The moment the thought occurred to Izaya, he banished it to the furthest corners of his mind. Shizuo belonged to no one, least of all the Raven. Thinking of it in any other way was dangerous.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Admittedly, it wasn’t the first time such a derivative idea had flitted through his head. Izaya called Shizuo his precious beast for a reason. After all, it was he who had carefully turned the blond man into the destructive force he was now. Honestly, it would have been stranger if Izaya </span>
  <em>
    <span>hadn’t</span>
  </em>
  <span> developed an attachment to Shizuo.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>But it was a rivalry, and thinking of it like some sort of monopoly over the Blond’s time and mental processes was </span>
  <em>
    <span>incorrect.</span>
  </em>
  <span> Unfortunately, at some point, what had once been a very easy dynamic had suddenly become complicated, but only for Izaya. He knew that Shziuo hated him as much as ever, but…</span>
</p><p>
  <span>For some reason, when he saw Shizuo, Izaya was reminded of Shinra and his talk of unrequited love. The mental connection was disturbing, and very clearly wrong.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Still, he made a point of avoiding the blond for the rest of that week. It didn’t make him a coward, he just had business. No one could possibly accuse him of anything else.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Speaking of the crack doctor, Shinra kept calling. It was making it difficult to forget about his flower problem, but Izaya did his best. Something in him knew that once he picked up that phone, he’d finally have to face his condition.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>As long as he didn’t pick up, he could pretend like the two flower attacks had been freak accidents and they wouldn’t happen again.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>But the phone didn’t stop ringing. Despite his resistance to picking it up, he’d had yet to leave it on vibrate. Theoretically, it was because the call might be something important.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>In reality, Izaya knew that if he muted it, he’d be openly acknowledging his own willful ignorance.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It was only blissful if you truly didn’t know better.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You should really answer that,” Namie pointed out, three weeks after he’d received the diagnosis, her mouth drawn down into a tight frown. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“And why is that, Namie-san?” Izaya trilled, looking away from his map, which he’d been studying quite closely. The gang had managed to spread to another district. He’d have to talk to Shiki soon, or it would look as though he’d been negligent.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>His secretary grunted, a very unflattering sound. “Because it’s starting to get on my nerves.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Ne, I never asked for your opinion,” Izaya responded, returning to his map. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Yes, I must schedule a meeting with Shiki soon. Not that I need his permission for what I’m about to do, he couldn’t stop me if he tried…</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>For a moment, he thought he’d gotten Namie to leave him alone, but as the phone let out another shrill ring, the woman </span>
  <em>
    <span>disapproved</span>
  </em>
  <span> audibly.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Peeved, Izaya let out a </span>
  <em>
    <span>tch</span>
  </em>
  <span> before reaching for the phone. Flipping it open, he swiftly declined the call before dropping the device to his swivel chair.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Izaya, what are you avoiding?” The question was loaded, and Izaya didn’t want to dignify it with an answer, but Namie’s bluntness struck a nerve, and he couldn’t quite ignore it. That was an accurate way to put it, after all. He was avoiding Shinra, and by extension the Hanahaki disease he’d supposedly caught and the unrequited feelings that he definitely didn’t have.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>But even he couldn’t skirt the issue forever.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It’s nothing, Namie-san,” he hummed, smiling thinly as the lie slipped off his tongue. “You have no need to worry yourself over it.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m not worried,” she instantly retorted, just as he’d known she would. Again, he expected that to be the end of the conversation, but a moment later, she was speaking again, her questions uncomfortably probing.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“If it’s Shinra calling…” Namie trailed off, like she was following the evidence to its natural conclusion. “Are you sick, Izaya?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Mentally?” Izaya asked, attempting levity.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You know what I’m asking.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>For a moment, he considered being honest, but no sooner had the idea occurred to him than he had banished it to the furthest reaches of his consciousness. “Ah, sorry to disappoint you Namie-san, but I am in perfect health,” Izaya drawled. “Shinra has gotten it into his head that I have come down with something, but he simply has an overactive imagination. I am fine.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hmmm.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She didn’t sound convinced.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Admittedly, Izaya wasn’t convinced either. But the conversation ended there, and he was spared the trouble of lying through his teeth.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>~・~</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Is this supposed to be some elaborate way of telling me that you plan to work directly against myself and my people?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Shiki was duly unimpressed. Taking a drag of his cigarette, the Awakusu-kai executive leaned back, surveying Izaya from his side of the car with a singular sort of indulgent exasperation he seemed to reserve solely for the Raven.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Not work against you, persay,” Izaya hummed, settling more comfortably into his own seat. “Think of it as a temporary loss in exchange for a much bigger gain.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“And why would I benefit from this?” the gang leader questioned, the lines between his eyebrows growing more pronounced. “As I see it, we could come in and take care of these Yīngsù members now, end the drug trade they’re attempting to establish, and keep things from escalating into a gang war later on. Why should I hold off?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I suppose me suggesting it would be more fun that way isn’t a good excuse?” When he received an irritated grumble, Izaya chuckled delightedly. “Shiki-san, you worry too much.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Sometimes, I don’t think I worry enough.” Puffing at his cigarette for a moment more, the older man finally said, “I’m under no illusion as to whose side you’re on.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Which would that be?” Izaya asked cheekily.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Your own,” Shiki stated flatly, unamused.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The car they sat in stopped at a red light, and the resulting moment of silence revealed the Raven’s soft chuckle perfectly.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You know me </span>
  <em>
    <span>so</span>
  </em>
  <span> well,” he purred.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Scowling, Shiki turned to the car window and stared out at the storefronts they were passing. “If you want to stir up trouble, </span>
  <em>
    <span>I’m</span>
  </em>
  <span> not going to be able to stop you. Though, I wonder why you’d come to me with the information you have if you’re planning something bigger.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Perhaps I have no ulterior motive whatsoever,” Izaya suggested, his tone deliberately light.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Or?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He smirked. “Or perhaps I know that you aren’t going to act on that information because this isn’t the first time you’ve had to deal with this Chinese opium trade showing up and disrupting your business.” Twirling a finger through the air, Izaya continued, “Perhaps you know it's the same people, coming back again and again no matter how many times you chase them off, and perhaps you’re getting tired of it.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Those are quite a few assumptions you’re making,” Shiki muttered, cigarette smoke filling the car as he turned to face Izaya.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“By all means, tell me which one is wrong.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Predictably, the Awakusu-kai executive said nothing and his silence was answer enough.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I intend to drive these people from your territory once and for all,” Izaya said, letting the words hang in the air for a moment before following them up with, “And I expect you to let me, because this is in your interests, and how it benefits me isn’t important.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Shiki’s brow twitched irritably. “I expect reports.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“When it’s possible,” Izaya agreed, waving a dismissive hand. “As if </span>
  <em>
    <span>I</span>
  </em>
  <span> would leave you out of the loop.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“If things get out of hand, I </span>
  <em>
    <span>will</span>
  </em>
  <span> stop you, long term benefits be damned.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I wouldn’t have it any other way,” Izaya reassured him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Though he hardly seemed satisfied about it, Shiki seemed to realize this was as good as he was going to get. Leaning forward, he tapped on the partition between his driver and the backseat. Seemingly understanding this signal for what it was, the man slowed down and pulled over to the side of the road. Once the vehicle had stopped moving, the older gang member flicked his cigarette butt out the slightly open window before nodding once to Izaya.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Try not to get yourself killed, Orihara-san,” Shiki said, his cold eyes steady.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Izaya’s smile was as genuine as he could reasonably be expected to make it. “Oh, I wouldn’t worry about that Shiki-san. I wouldn’t dare die, this city might stop functioning if I did.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I wouldn’t go that far,” Shiki muttered.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Opening the door of the car, Izaya slid out. “I might be hard to reach for a while. Try not to miss me too much~”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Before Shiki could respond with a disparaging comment, the Raven shut the door of the sleek black vehicle and watched as it pulled away from the curb to merge with traffic.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>In his pocket, one of Izaya’s many phones began to ring. Knowing which one it was before he pulled it out, the man sighed as Shinra’s number flashed across the display. At this point, it had been a month. If he’d planned on answering it, he would have done it the first time it rang.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>After a second’s hesitation, he silenced it and stowed it within his fur-trimmed coat once more.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>I’m fine,</span>
  </em>
  <span> he told himself.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Love was just a foolish concept, anyway.</span>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>I realize this is promising to be a rather long story. I should probably update that chapter number oh no.</p>
        </blockquote><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Oh man, you have no idea what you're in for.</p><p>(For the, like, two people who are wondering; I'm currently working on the next chapter of A Trouble With Soulmates. Because I desperately crave angst right now)</p></blockquote></div></div>
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